Method and system for integrating an interaction management system with a business rules management system

ABSTRACT

In a contact center, a system for processing communication events has an interaction server for managing events waiting to be routed, a routing server for routing the events, a rules engine, and a gateway server executing rules invocation logic and interacting with the rules engine. The interaction server tracks incoming events, initiates and sends a routing request to the routing server, including a special routing object, for each event that requires conformance to business rules, the routing server, executing the routing object, sends an execution request to the gateway server, which upon receipt of the request prepares a business object model (BOM), being a set of facts upon which the rules engine executes rules appropriate to the facts, resulting in routing direction for the routing server to route the event.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is in the field of computer integrated telephonyincluding data network telephony and other network-supported electroniccommunication, and pertains particularly to a system for integratinginteraction management and business rules management tasks within acontact center environment.

2. Discussion of the State of the Art

In the field of telecommunications and electronic messaging, developmentof interaction management and rules-based treatments for customerscalling into a contact center or engaging in electronic interaction,such as email with a contact center, continues. A state-of-art contactcenter as known to the inventors may handle telephone interactionsincluding data network telephony (DNT), and all forms of electronicmessaging including email, instant messaging (IM), chat, short messageservice (SMS), and multimedia message service (MMS), as well as voicecalls. Other interaction types such as Web servicing of interactiveforms and applications including voice-based Web interactions are commonand a state -of-art contact center is generally equipped to handle everytype of communication.

It is important for a contact center to meet certain service objectivesthat are relevant to sales, efficiency, service rating, and so on.Therefore, a contact center management process is constantly seeking newand better ways to streamline processes and resource requirements likesoftware, equipment and such to make the center more efficient, usingless overhead. Interaction routing systems and equipment, workflowmanagement systems and equipment, customer relations management systemsand equipment, and rules management systems and equipment are typicallya part of a contact center apparatus.

Many different types of interactions routinely occur betweenagents/automated systems and customers in a contact center. It isdesirable to be able to optimize contact center workflow includinginteraction, routing, resource allocation, and other like tasks so thatthese processes are performed in a most efficient and cost productivemanner. Therefore, contact centers typically rely on a set of rules orpolicies that govern the daily activities of the center, including howinteraction is handled. One problem with traditional contact centermanagement is that interaction management and business management arenot well integrated in terms of overall workflow.

Current contact center applications contain sophisticated logic that ismainly implemented in the form of IVR scripts, routing strategies, agentscripts, and so on. It has occurred to the inventor that some contactcenter applications, especially applications that are closely tied tobusiness policy, could rely on logic that is expressed in the form ofbusiness rules.

Therefore, what is clearly needed is a contact center architecture thatprovides enhanced integration of business rule management andinteraction workflow management.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A problem stated above is that it is desired in a contact center tointegrate interaction workflow management and business processmanagement for streamlining how interactions are handled within thecenter. However in current state-of-art contact centers interactionworkflow and business process are largely separated entities that maycommunicate with one another but that are not well integrated.

The inventors therefore considered functional elements of a contactcenter system, looking for elements that could be defined in an abstractway and that could be functionally integrated to provide businessprocess and interaction workflow orchestration, but in a manner thatwould not create time delay or added interaction load on the system.

Every contact center is driven by interaction workflow and businesspolicy enactment at some level, one by-product of which is additionalload due to parallel processes that are relevant to a same interactionbut are not well integrated with each other. Most such contact centersemploy business process management services and interaction routingservices and business rule engines and routing systems are typically apart of such apparatus.

The present inventors realized in an inventive moment that if, at thepoint of interaction event handling could be tied directly to businesspolicy, significant streamlining might result with respect tointeraction workflow. The inventor therefore constructed a uniquebusiness process routing system for handling interactions represented asopen media sessions that allowed most interaction types to be handledaccording to business rule execution results while tasking into accountdynamic characteristics of interaction objects and contact centerstatistics. A significant improvement in efficiency results includingcapability of automatically updating certain contact center objects whenneeded.

Accordingly, in a contact center, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention, a system for processing communication events isprovided, comprising an interaction server for managing events waitingto be routed, a routing server for routing the events, a rules engine,and a gateway server executing rules invocation logic and interactingwith the rules engine. The interaction server tracks incoming events,initiates and sends a routing request to the routing server, including aspecial routing object, for each event that requires conformance tobusiness rules, the routing server, executing the routing object, sendsan execution request to the gateway server, which upon receipt of therequest prepares a business object model (BOM), being a set of factsupon which the rules engine executes rules appropriate to the facts,resulting in routing direction for the routing server to route theevent.

In another aspect of the invention a method for routing an interactionevent in a contact center is provided, comprising the steps of (a)representing the interaction event in an interaction server using anabstract markup language; (b) requesting a routing strategy for handlingthe event; (c) sending a routing object to a routing server, which whenit executes the routing object sends a request to a gateway server; (d)at the gateway server, in response to the request, creating a businessobject model representing a set of facts relevant to the interactionevent and contact center state information; (e) starting a business ruleengine to execute one or more business rules using the business objectmodel as data for rule execution; and (f) returning the results of ruleexecution to the routing strategy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a contact center environmentwhere business process routing is practiced according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a process flow chart illustrating steps for routing aninteraction according to business rule execution according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a process flow cart illustrating steps for escalating a Websession to a live channel according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating components for business processrouting and contact center updating according to tan embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is a process flow chart illustrating steps for application of asystem update as a result of business object model generation and ruleexecution.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventors provide a system and methods for routing interactions in acontact center according to business process rules. The system includesa vehicle for automatically updating certain contact center states. Thepresent invention is described in enabling detail relative to thefollowing embodiments.

FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a contact center environment 100where business process routing is practiced according to an embodimentof the present invention. Contact center environment 100 is furtherillustrated in this example by contact center equipment 103 connected bya network, such as a local area network (LAN). Contact center equipmentgroup 103 may be referred to simply as contact center (CC) 103 in thisspecification. A state of art contact center such as CC 103 hasconnectivity to at least one network through which potential customersof the center may have access to contact center services.

Environment 100 includes a wide area network (WAN) 101 and a telephonenetwork 102. WAN 101 may be a corporate WAN, a private WAN, or amunicipal area network (MAN). WAN 101 may be the Internet network in apreferred embodiment because of its high public access characteristic.WAN 101 may be referred to herein as Internet 101. Internet 101represented logically by a network cloud includes all of the lines,equipment, and access points that make up the Internet as a whole.Therefore there are no geographic limits to the practice of the presentinvention. Telephone network 102 may be a private telephone network or apublic network such as the well known public switched telephone network(PSTN). Telephone network 102 may be referred to herein as PSTN 102, andrepresents all of the lines, equipment, and access points that make up aPSTN as a whole, including other connected carrier networks and Internet101. Network lines such as access lines and network backbones arelogically represented herein as connection lines between nodes on thenetwork.

CC 103 may maintain an Internet Web server (WS) 106 within the domain ofInternet 101 for maintenance and serving of a company website throughwhich Web services may be provided. Web server 106 includes a digitalmedium provided thereto by installation or through network or data linkconnection for storing electronic information pages for service. Webservices may include sales, technical support, billing, and informationservices, as well as other services. Customers of CC 103 that access CCservices through Internet 101 and WS 106 are represented herein by adirectional arrow representing user connectivity to WS 106 from anywhereon the network.

Access to WS 106 may be accomplished through an Internet-capableappliance such as a Laptop or desktop computing system or any otherappliance including an Internet-capable cellular telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA) or other device having a network browser fornavigating to a Web site and an interactive interface for interaction. Amessage server (MSG) 105 is illustrated within Internet 101 andrepresents a server such as a mail server through which email may bedelivered to contact center 103. Message server 105 includes a digitalmedium provided thereto by installation or network or data linkconnection for storing email messages for delivery and download.

Web server 106 comprises at least one Web site that is serviced throughCC 103. Such a Web site may include a log-in page, a customerregistration page, a product and services description page, a downloadpage and a customer contact page for enabling Web customers tocommunicate with center 103. Web customers that connect to WS 106 mayinitiate Web sessions such as chat, Web call back, purchase andcheckout, instant messaging, post and reply, and email. WS 106 isconnected to an interaction server (Inx) 124 within CC 103.

Interaction server 124 is a server node maintained by CC 103 thatrepresents all incoming CC interactions between customers and CC 103 inan abstract way such as by representing the interactions as open mediasessions using open media language. Interaction server 124 includes adigital medium provided thereto by installation or network or data linkconnection, for storing CC applications used to represent interactionworkflow. An interaction work flow (IWF) application 117 represents themonitored flow of any interaction represented in server 124. Server 124may represent both Web initiated interactions and telephony interactionsincluding Voice Extensible Markup Language (VXML)-based interactionswith customers of the call center.

Interaction server 124 has connection to a computer telephone integrated(CTI) processer/server 108 that is connected by a CTI link to centraltelephone switch (CS) 107 maintained at the call center. Telephoneinteractions are represented in real time at server 124 as open mediasessions. Switch 107 may be a private branch exchange (PBX), anautomated call distributor (ACD) or a soft telephone switch implementedin software (SW). Call center 103 has connection to PSTN 102 through CS107 and a telephone trunk line.

A service control point (SCP) 104 is illustrated within telephonenetwork 102 and represents any switching facility through whichtelephone calls may be received and routed to CS 107 for treatment. SCP104 provides an access point into contact center 103. Potential callersusing SCP as a first service point for CC 103, such as toll-free calls,are represented by a directional arrow signifying incoming call events.Interactive voice response (IVR) treatment may be provided to CS 107 forinterfacing with callers registered at the switch to determine, amongother things, a purpose for the call.

CTI processor/server 108 provides intelligent routing capabilities toswitch 107. A voice application server (VAS) not illustrated may beconnected to IVR at switch 107. A system VXML browser may also beintegrated with switch 107 through a voice application for enabling IVRassisted voice browsing of a Web site maintained in WS 106.

When an incoming call registers at switch 107, CTI processor/server 108provides notification of the event to interaction server 124 and a newsession is created. Interaction server 124 may be configured torepresent in abstract form, an email session, an instant messagesession, a transaction session, a chat session, or other Web basedinteractive sessions. Interaction server 124 represents interactions asobjects having parameters and defined interaction workflow that executeswithin the server to affect servicing or handling the event.

Interaction server 124 has network connectivity to a router or routingserver (RS) 112. The inventors know of a routing server termed auniversal routing server (URS). RS 112 includes a digital mediumprovided thereto by installation or through network or data linkconnection for storing executable routing strategies that arepre-defined or dynamically assembled for routing interaction eventsprocessed through server 107. A routing strategy is represented in thisexample as a routing strategy (RST) 119 executable from RS 112 uponrequest. When a session represented in interaction server 124 executesinteraction workflow (IWF 117) relative to the session type andparameters, a point in the workflow may execute resulting in a requestto RS 112 for a suitable RST 119 to be executed to help determinehandling of the event. Typically a request invokes the routing strategy,and after execution and runtime the event is routed according to thestrategy. The event may continue to be represented in server 107 and maybe monitored until the session has been resolved or terminated.

In business process routing (BPR), business rules are executed as aresult of routing strategy execution and run to determine how best toresolve interactive sessions represented in server 124. RS 112 hasnetwork connectivity, in this case, through the domain of interactionserver 124 to an external services protocol (ESP) server 111. ESP server111 includes a digital medium provided thereto by installation or bynetwork or data link connection for storing rules invocation logic (RIL)120 used to create a business object model for business rule execution.ESP server 111 functions in this example as a gateway server to abusiness rules engine, which may be a third-party rules engine adaptedto execute business process rules.

Contact center 103 includes a statistics server (Stat) server 113adapted to serve call center real-time statistics upon request. Suchstatistics might include the current estimated waiting time (EWT) in aparticular agent queue, the current agent resources assigned for aqueue, current agent workflow assignment configurations, availabilitystatistics for live assistance, and other call center statistics relatedto center resources and workflows. Stat server 113 has connection to adata repository 115 adapted to store data used by the server to generatestatistics.

CC 103 also includes a call center configuration (CFG) server 114. CFGserver 114 is adapted to serve static call center configuration objects.Server 114 is connected to a data repository adapted to contain dataused by the server to generate new configurations and modify existingconfigurations.

RS 112 may subscribe to either or to both servers 113 (Stat) and 114(CFG). RIL 120 is invoked specifically to formulate a business objectmodel illustrated herein as BOM 122. In the construction of this model,the ESP server may get data if required to generate a BOM throughsubscribing to call center statistics and configuration data throughconnection to the appropriate servers. Subscription to data may beaccording to a change-based notification scheme or a time-basednotification scheme. ESP server 111 may be a dedicated server or aserver application on a separate machine. In one embodiment of theinvention, the ESP server is a Drools gateway that provides access to aDrools rule engine. Other third-party rules engines may be adapted topractice the present invention.

ESP server 111 has a direct data or network connection to asophisticated business rules management server (BRMS) 109. BRMS 109 hasa digital medium provided thereto by installation or by network or datalink for storing a business rules engine (BRE) 118 and a rulesapplication (Rule App) 121. BRMS 111 has connection to a data repository110 adapted to store pre-defined business rules and/or rule constructsfor dynamic rule presentation. BRE 118 may be a generic or a third-partyrules engine.

Rule APP 121 includes a set of facts or a BOM and one or a set ofbusiness rules that use the BOM in execution. Technically the BRE runsinside of the rules application to execute business rules based on theBOM received. BOM 122 is generated at ESP server 111 as a result ofinitiation of RIL 120. BOM 122 is created from objects representingconfiguration data, statistical data, and interaction workflow data. Inone embodiment the BRMS is Java-based under the JBoss application serverprogram for use with Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) andEnterprise Java Beans (EJB). The system can also be implemented in a.NET or a common business oriented language (such as COBOL) environment.

When an interaction event occurs it is represented in an abstract openmedia session using open media architecture (OMA) in interaction server124. The interaction has a workflow or IWF 117. At some point theinteraction needs to be routed so a request including the appropriateinteraction parameters (object) is made from the interaction server toRS 112 to start a routing strategy for the open media session. RST 119executes on behalf of the interaction event and during runtime comes toa point where one or more business process decisions need to be made.RST 119 contains an embedded routing object or external services object(ESO) that is adapted to invoke logic (RIL 120) within ESP server 111.The routing object (not illustrated) is executed on server 112 to send arequest to gateway server 111 (ESP server) using external servicesprotocol (ESP) for the request response protocol between the servers.

RIL on server 111 is started and creates BOM 122 and sends BOM 122 toBRMS 109 to be used in rule execution. A set of facts about theinteraction event, the current contact center statistics, and thecontact center configured state information. The interaction eventparameters and the contact center statistics are dynamic while thecontact center configure information is typically static and does notchange. The BOM 122 is sent in this example to BRMS 109. BOM 122 becomesnested in rule application 121 as a set of facts for the business ruleexecution process.

When a rule or rules are executed, BRMS 109 sends the results back tothe interaction server 124 and to the RS server 112. In one embodiment,rule application 121 is a predefined rule application that receives theBOM and retrieves the rule or rules for execution. Business rules 110may be static rules that are pre-defined by hard coding or they may begenerated from constructs including a conditional or “condition” and an“action”. For example, the conditional phrases beginning with terms like“if” or “when” such as “if the email is a new email” (condition 1) “andif the potential customer can be identified as a top customer (condition2), then offer a live interaction. When the condition proves true in thedata and state considered then the action is implemented.

In a preferred embodiment execution of one or more rules using a BOM forrules data may result in a subsequent update to a portion of the BOM.For example, a priority ranking for an interaction can be increased as aresult of rule execution. Some of the data used to generate BOM 122 isdynamic such as statistical data gathered in real time or interactionparameters. Therefore changes in data states may result in differencesin rule selection and execution results lending to an update. An updatedbusiness object model can be used by the contact center system togenerate an update to a contact center state such as a resourceallocation configuration.

An exemplary rule presented in DRL notation is listed below:

rule “PriorityCalculatorGold” salience 111  no-loop true  when   ixn :_(—) Interaction (media type) == “email” , interactiontype == “inbound”,  interactionSubtype == “InboundNew” , customerSegment ==_Interaction.GOLD,   BL Number == 1, BL IxnWaitTime > 1) ;  then  System.out.println (“Rule     :   PriorityCalculatorGold worked”) ;  System.out.println (“IxnType    : “ +   ixn. getInteractionType ( ) );   System.out.println (“IxnSubType : “ +   ixn.getInteractionSubtype () ) ;   System.out.println (“CustSegment : “ +   ixn.getCustomerSegment( ) ) ;   System.out.println (“ BL     : “ + ixn.getBL_Number ( ) ) ;  System.out.Println (: IxnWaitTime : “ +   ixn.getBL_IxnWaitTime ( ) );   Ixn.setBL_IxnPriority (Ixn.getBL_IxnPriority ( ) +3) ;  System.out.Println (‘Changing Priority Gold: +3 : “ +ixn.getBL_IxnPiority ( ) ) ; //    modify (ixn) ; end

In the above example, the priority of the interaction is increased by 3units after the “when” conditions are found to be true. The above ruleworks on the interaction object by changing the priority of handling orrouting the interaction. The routing strategy that requested executionof the rule may implement a strategy based on the new priority.

FIG. 2 is a process flow chart illustrating steps 200 for routing aninteraction according to business rule execution according to anembodiment of the present invention. At step 201 an incoming interactionevent arrives at the call center. The event could be a telephone call,an email, a chat request, a Web interaction, an instant message, a voicebrowser session, a short message service (SMS) message, a multimediamessage service (MMS) message or some other type of traceableinteraction that can be represented in an interaction server. At step202 the interaction server is notified of the interaction.

At step 203 the interaction server generates an open media sessionrepresenting the interaction. The session comprises an interactionobject including parameters and workflow. At step 204 the interactionserver requests a routing strategy from a routing server. The routingstrategy generic for the interaction type and sub-type, if any, isexecuted. At step 205 the routing strategy may decide if business ruleexecution is necessary. In one embodiment all of the routing strategieshave one or more points in process where business rule execution isrequired. In another embodiment depending on interaction type it is notrequired to execute a business rule to complete routing. If at step 205the strategy does not call for BRE invocation, then at step 206 theinteraction can be routed without rule execution.

If the routing strategy calls for business rule execution at step 205,then at step 207 the strategy executes a special routing object, whichcan be an external service object for invoking an external service usingexternal service protocol (ESP). Execution of the routing objectinitiates a request at step 208 to a gateway server like ESP server 111to execute rules invocation logic (RIL). Upon receiving the request andperhaps some additional parameters, the ESP server starts ruleinvocation logic at step 209. At step 210 the rules gateway running RILgenerates a business object model (BOM) to use in execution of one ormore rules. The BOM is a set of facts that can be static and dynamicfacts. The BOM is part of a rules application that includes the correctbusiness rules to execute using the BOM as BRE data.

At step 211 one or more business rules are executed by the businessrules engine (BRE). At step 212 the results of rule execution arereturned to the routing server and the routing strategy that requestedthe rules based processing. At step 213 the routing strategy implementsthe rules-based routing or handling of the interaction. Results of ruleexecution may include some modification to the interaction object suchas changing one or more attributes of the object like priority of theobject such as through a customer segment scheme or other priorityroutines. It is noted herein that a rules application such asapplication 121 in FIG. 1 may be predefined and may already contain therule specifications that will be executed. In another embodiment a rulesapplication may be dynamically assembled using the appropriate rulesconstructs to create the business rules to be executed based on adynamic BOM.

FIG. 3 is a process flow cart illustrating steps 300 for escalating aWeb session to a live channel according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Business process routing (BPR) may be applied to sessionescalation. At step 301 a Web session monitor tracks a Web session. TheWeb session may be represented in an interaction server. At step 302 thesystem may determine whether to execute one or more business rules tospecify if the session will be escalated. The Web session may be aVXML-based session where the customer is browsing the company Web siteusing a voice-enabled browser using an IVR.

If at step 302 no BRE involvement is ordered, then the process may loopback to monitoring at step 301. If BRE involvement is decided at step302 then the interaction monitor sends a request at step 303 to therouting server. Upon receipt of the request, routing strategy isexecuted and a routing object or ESO is executed at step 304. Executionof the routing object initiates a request to the rules gateway (ESP)server at step 305 and the gateway invokes RIL.

At step 306 the RIL generates the BOM and may get CC statistics,configuration objects, and interaction parameters. The BOM generated isused for business rule execution within the rule application. At step307 at least one rule is executed. Based on the result of execution therouting server may decide to escalate the self-help interaction to alive assistance channel (for example) at step 308. At step 309 therouting strategy escalates the session by routing or by offering a popupto the Web session for the customer to accept or to decline escalationto live assistance. If at step 308 the decision is made not to escalatethe session, then the process may loop back to monitoring at step 301.

A time to live (TTL) may be imposed on monitoring such that, within atime window, if the session is not escalated monitoring may bediscontinued for the particular session. Interaction object parameterssent along with the request for business rule execution may includenavigation pattern data used in the decision process. Other facts mightbe considered such as customer segment, payment history, customerloyalty rating, and so on.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating components 400 for businessprocess routing and contact center object updating according to anembodiment of the present invention. ESP server 111 is at the heart ofcomponents 400 and is where BOM 122 is generated each time a request forrule execution is received on behalf of an interaction routing strategy.BOM 122 contains several business objects (BOs) 403. A business objectmodel manager 401 is provided in this example and is responsible forgetting the required data to build the object model. Interaction server124 running interaction workflow 117 may provide an interaction objectand current attributes of the object (dynamic attributes) to BOM manager401. Statistics server 113 may provide current statistics 113 a in theform of a stat object to BOM manager 401. Configuration server 114 mayprovide static configuration objects 114 a to BOM manager 401.

BOM manager 401 assembles BOM 122, which contains both dynamic andstatic facts. A BOM then is considered to be a dynamic object model thatcan be updated during business rules execution. Once BOM 122 iscomplete, rules engine 118 is invoked to execute one or more businessrules 110. In this example, BOM manager 401 running in gateway 111 hasconnection to a workflow management server 402 having a digital mediumprovided thereto by installation or by network connection for storingcurrent contact center workflow including current agent assignmentinformation.

It may be determined in rule execution that an update should beperformed with respect to contact center allocation of live resources(Agents) working within the system. In one embodiment, the BOM managermay communicate a suggested update to an update manager 403 running onserver 402. In this case the update concerns agent allocation to workingqueues. The update manager after receiving the update data may implementthe update by communicating the update in the form of a command to aresource allocation manager 404 also running on server 402.

The resource allocation manager has access to all of the resourceobjects within the center including agent allocation models. The updatecan be implemented by reassembling an agent allocation model to reflecta changed state. An example of agent reallocation might be moving orreassigning several agents working one campaign to begin working anothercampaign. For example, if the interaction is a telephone call in a queueof type campaign 12 and the EWT is > than (10) minutes and EWT forcampaign 13 is < than (1) minute, then move 3 agents from campaign 13 tocampaign 12.

Notification of the update made to agent allocation configuration mightalso be propagated to interaction server 124 and to statistics server113 for predictive purposes assuming the EWT for queue 12 will now beconsiderable lowered as a result of the allocation modification.

FIG. 5 is a process flow chart illustrating steps 500 for application ofa system update as a result of business object model generation and ruleexecution. At step 501 the ESP server starts routing invocation logic(RIL). At step 503 the BOM manager gets data for creating a BOM forrules execution. At step 503 the RIL generates the BOM. At step 504 theBRE gets and executes the appropriate business rules or rules. At step505 the result of rules execution is returned to the routing process.

At step 506 the system determines if there is a system update thatshould be implemented. If the system decides not to update then theprocess may end at step 508. If at step 506 there is an update thatshould be made then at step 507 the BOM manager running in the rulesgateway applies the update by propagating the update to the appropriateupdate manager. Notice of the update may be propagated to affectedsystems for predictive purposes. The BPR system of the invention can beimplemented in any contact center environment for virtually any type andsubtype of interaction.

Several embodiments are described above, and in one embodiment a systemfor processing communication events in a contact center is provided,comprising an interaction server for managing events waiting to berouted, a routing server for routing the events, a rules engine, and agateway server executing rules invocation logic and interacting with therules engine. The interaction server tracks incoming events, initiatesand sends a routing request to the routing server, including a specialrouting object, for each event that requires conformance to businessrules, the routing server, executing the routing object, sends anexecution request to the gateway server, which upon receipt of therequest prepares a business object model (BOM), being a set of factsupon which the rules engine executes rules appropriate to the facts,resulting in routing direction for the routing server to route theevent.

Similarly a method for routing an interaction event is provided,comprising the steps of (a) representing the interaction event in aninteraction server using an abstract markup language; (b) requesting arouting strategy for handling the event; (c) sending a routing object toa routing server, which when it executes the routing object sends arequest to a gateway server; (d) at the gateway server, in response tothe request, creating a business object model representing a set offacts relevant to the interaction event and contact center stateinformation; (e) starting a business rule engine to execute one or morebusiness rules using the business object model as data for ruleexecution; and (f) returning the results of rule execution to therouting strategy.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the businessprocess routing system of the invention may be provided using some orall of the mentioned features and components without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention. It will also be apparent tothe skilled artisan that the embodiments described above are specificexamples of a single broader invention which may have greater scope thanany of the singular descriptions taught. There may be many alterationsmade in the descriptions without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for processing communication events,comprising: receiving, by a processor, an incoming interaction event tobe routed, the interaction event arriving at a call center from networksexternal to the call center; sending, by the processor, interactionparameters for the interaction event; determining a routing strategy forthe interaction event based on the interaction parameters; sending arequest to a gateway server in response to determining the routingstrategy, wherein the gateway server is configured to identify a set offacts associated with the interaction event; executing by a routingengine a rule appropriate to the set of facts for outputting routinginformation in response; and routing the interaction event based on therouting information.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is awide area network (WAN) integrated by a computer telephone integrationprocessor to a telephone switching facility.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the WAN is the Internet network.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the interaction events are represented in an interaction serverusing an abstract markup language.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein theinteraction events represent one or a combination of telephone calls,voice over Internet protocol calls, emails, text messages, orinteractive chat requests.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set offacts are pre-defined facts or dynamically assembled facts.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the interaction event is routed in the callcenter.
 8. In a contact center, a system for processing and routingcommunication events, comprising: an interaction server for managingincoming interaction events waiting to be routed, the events arriving ata call center from parties on networks external to the contact center; arouting server for routing the events; a rules engine; and a gatewayserver having a processor and memory, wherein the memory has storedthereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theprocessor to: track incoming events; and transmit a routing request tothe routing server for one of the incoming events, wherein the routingserver is configured to transmit a request to the gateway server foridentifying a set of facts associated with the one of the incomingevents, wherein the rules engine is configured to execute rulesappropriate to the facts, resulting in routing direction for the routingserver for routing the event.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein thenetwork is a wide area network (WAN) integrated by a computer telephoneintegration processor to a telephone switching facility.
 10. The systemof claim 9, wherein the WAN is the Internet network.
 11. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the interaction events are represented in theinteraction server using an abstract markup language.
 12. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the interaction events represent one or a combinationof telephone calls, voice over Internet protocol calls, emails, textmessages, or interactive chat requests.
 13. The system of claim 8,wherein the gateway server has network access to a contact centerconfiguration server and a contact center statistics server forgathering the facts.